Posted by
Andrews on Monday, March 24, 2008 9:59:01 AM
I am puzzled by the media obsession with snooping into Obama's passport files. First, by the fact that they always report it as Obam's files, while it actually appears to be snooping into all three remaining candidates' files* Admittedly, it was first discovered regarding Obama's files, but even after the others were discovered, the media still insists on making this an "Obama story".
But what really puzzles me is that this relatively minor spying is getting ten times the coverage a far more serious snooping into Michael Steele's credit report ever did.
If you don't recall the Steele credit report incident, don't worry. As it involved Democrat staffers doing something actually illegal in hopes of smearing a Republican, the press spent all of a second covering it at the time. As they couldn't completely ignore it, they eventually released reports, but made sure no one would listen. "Oh, by the way, a few rogue staffers who just happened to work in Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee may have peeked at Michael Steele's credit report. No big deal. Now, moving on to weather..."
I will admit, it has been a while since I applied for a passport, and I also do not know what information the government adds after I submit my application, but I am not convinced that a passport file contains a lot of terribly private information. It may, I could be wrong.
On the other hand, I do know that a credit report contains a lot of private information that one would not wish revealed.
Yet, somehow staffers clearly associated with a single party, doing something blatantly illegal to obtain private information is glossed over with a few words, while some unknown members of the federal government, not clearly associated with either party, looked at some information for all three presidential candidates, and somehow this merits headlines for weeks, all of them focusing on Obama.
I despair of ever understanding the media.
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* It must drive the Paul supporters nuts that he didn't merit any snooping. But, as we keep telling them, their guy just isn't a real candidate. Then again, if the Democrats are stuck with Obama, Ron Paul still has a shot at coming in second on a third party ticket, so don't give up yet guys.